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Varieties

The Swiss Guards Have a New Uniform. Don’t Worry, the Iconic One Remains 

Colonel Christoph Graf wears a uniform on the day of the presentation of the updated dress uniform, known as the 'Mezza Gala' uniform, at the Swiss Guard Corps Barracks, at the Vatican, October 2, 2025. (Reuters)
Colonel Christoph Graf wears a uniform on the day of the presentation of the updated dress uniform, known as the 'Mezza Gala' uniform, at the Swiss Guard Corps Barracks, at the Vatican, October 2, 2025. (Reuters)
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The Swiss Guards Have a New Uniform. Don’t Worry, the Iconic One Remains 

Colonel Christoph Graf wears a uniform on the day of the presentation of the updated dress uniform, known as the 'Mezza Gala' uniform, at the Swiss Guard Corps Barracks, at the Vatican, October 2, 2025. (Reuters)
Colonel Christoph Graf wears a uniform on the day of the presentation of the updated dress uniform, known as the 'Mezza Gala' uniform, at the Swiss Guard Corps Barracks, at the Vatican, October 2, 2025. (Reuters)

Swiss guards wait for the arrival of Switzerland's President Karin Keller-Sutter on the occasion of a private audience with Pope Leo XIV, at the Vatican, Friday, Oct. 3, 2025. (AP)

The world’s oldest army has new uniforms.

But don’t worry: The Swiss Guards’ famed blue, yellow and red Renaissance-style billowy garb isn’t going anywhere. Rather, the pope’s army on Thursday unveiled an additional uniform for nonceremonial, formal occasions, such as a diplomatic reception or official dinner outside the Vatican walls.

Col. Christoph Graf, the Swiss Guards commander, donned the new duds at a presentation ceremony in the army's barracks ahead of the annual swearing-in ceremony Saturday of 27 new recruits.

Graf explained that the new black wool uniform, with two rows of buttons, a yellow and white belt and Mao-style collar, is actually a faithful rendition of a centuries-old suit worn by Swiss Guard officials that went out of use in 1976.

The corps tried an update a decade ago, didn’t like it, and commissioned a more faithful version that will get its first official use at a gala reception Friday on the eve of the swearing-in. An unnamed benefactor footed the bill for the uniforms, worn by just the senior ranks, which cost around 2,000 euros (2,300 dollars) apiece, officials said.

The world's oldest and smallest army

The corps, which historians consider the oldest standing army in the world, was founded in 1506 by Pope Giulio II. Tradition has it that he was so impressed by the bravery of Swiss mercenaries that he asked them to defend the Vatican. Ever since, for more than 500 years, Switzerland has been supplying soldiers to the Vatican to staff an army of 135 men.

Usually, the swearing-in ceremony is held on or near May 6 to commemorate the day in 1527 when 147 guardsmen died while protecting Pope Clement VII during the Sack of Rome.

This year’s ceremony was postponed following the death in April of Pope Francis and the conclave that elected Pope Leo XIV.

The new uniform is one of several outfits the guards wear. The most famous is the “Gala Uniform,” which despite popular legend was not designed by Michelangelo. Rather, it was designed by Commander Jules Repond in the early 1900s and is based on the colors of the Medici family, according to the corps' website.

Visitors to the Vatican will also see guards policing the city state's main entrances in navy uniforms topped with a beret.

This year’s ceremony comes as plans are progressing to renovate the aging barracks for the guards to make better use of the space and increase the number of dormitory-style rooms that could, in theory, one day allow for female recruits.

There are currently no such plans, but the barracks’ cramped housing has long been cited as one of the reasons why women couldn’t be admitted. The new architectural plans call for a flexible configuration of the buildings that could, if the pope were to approve it one day, allow for a female section, said Jean-Pierre Roth, president of the foundation created in 2016 to raise money for the renovation of the barracks.

“This is not our decision,” he stressed. “The only thing we have done is that when everything is ready, if we want a special section for females, it’s possible, no problem.”

The renovation process is complicated given Vatican City is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, which means any renovation must be approved by the UN body’s technical experts. The Vatican received the first green light to its architectural plans in 2023 and is expected to present revised plans in the coming weeks, Roth said.

Roth, the former president of the Swiss National Bank, said 48 million euros had so far been raised in cash and financial pledges, but that construction costs in Rome had increased significantly since the first budgets were prepared and that a new fundraising appeal would be launched in 2026.

Originally, there were hopes to unveil the new barracks in 2027, the 500th anniversary of the Sack of Rome. Now, the hopes are that the construction can begin in 2027, Roth said.

A big year for new recruits

The criteria for entry into the army are strict: Guards must be Swiss, male, practicing Catholics, aged 19-30, at least 1.74-meters (5-foot-7-inch) tall and have an “impeccable reputation”. They must be in good health, have a high school diploma or equivalent and have completed Swiss military training.

They need a driver’s license and be willing to serve for at least 26 months. Most guards are unmarried, but recruits 25 and older are allowed to marry if they have already served for five years and pledge to stay on for another three.

One of the new recruits being sworn-in on Saturday, identified by the corps by his first name, Dario, for security reasons, said he grew up knowing of the guards because his father had served from 1989-1991, and decided to join himself after attending a friend's swearing-in ceremony in 2023.

Dario started in January, and has already been on duty during one of the most momentous years in recent Vatican history: A Jubilee year that brought millions of pilgrims to Rome, and the death of one pope and the election of another.

“What we have experienced now in this one year alone, other Swiss Guards haven't experienced in their whole service time,” he said. Speaking in the barracks' courtyard, Dario said there were a lot of hours of extra work, but that's what the job is all about.

“You are here to serve, not to go on vacation in Rome,” he said.

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Varieties

Rain Further Batters Storm-Hit Portugal, Thousands Evacuated

A flooded area in Ceira, Coimbra, Portugal, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)
A flooded area in Ceira, Coimbra, Portugal, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)
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Rain Further Batters Storm-Hit Portugal, Thousands Evacuated

A flooded area in Ceira, Coimbra, Portugal, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)
A flooded area in Ceira, Coimbra, Portugal, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)

More ‌heavy rain flooded several rural areas in the north of storm-battered Portugal on Wednesday, leaving levees at risk of bursting around the medieval city of Coimbra and forcing authorities to evacuate about 3,000 residents as a precaution.

A succession of deadly storms has hammered mostly central and southern parts of the country since late January, blowing roofs off houses, flooding several towns and leaving hundreds of thousands without electricity for days. At least 15 people have died as a consequence of the storms, including indirect ‌victims.

As the ‌storms let up this week, a weather ‌phenomenon ⁠known as an "atmospheric river" - ⁠a wide corridor of concentrated water vapor carrying massive amounts of moisture from the tropics - brought new downpours, affecting the north to a greater extent.

RISK OF DAM OVERFLOWING

Municipal authorities in Coimbra ordered the precautionary evacuation late on Tuesday of around 3,000 people most at risk from the River Mondego bursting its banks, ⁠and the operation was still under way on ‌Wednesday, with police making door-to-door checks ‌and bussing residents to shelters.

Regional Civil Protection official Carlos Tavares ‌said on Wednesday the situation could worsen between late Wednesday ‌and midday Thursday, as the rain could cause the Aguieira dam, 35 km northeast of Coimbra, "to overflow, sweep away levees and trigger further flooding".

Part of Coimbra's ancient city wall, on a hillside in one ‌of Europe's oldest university towns and a UNESCO World Heritage site, collapsed, shutting the road below ⁠and forcing ⁠the closure of the municipal market, the city hall said.

Prime Minister Luis Montenegro was due in Coimbra to oversee the emergency response after Interior Minister Maria Lucia Amaral resigned following criticism from opposition parties and local communities over what they described as the authorities' slow and failed response to devastating Storm Kristin two weeks ago.

In central Portugal, just across the River Tagus from Lisbon, authorities evacuated the village of Porto Brandao due to the risk of landslides, and around 30 people were removed from their homes after a landslide in the neighboring beachside area of Caparica.

Varieties

Record Heat and Raging Fires Ring in 2026 Across the Southern Hemisphere 

A helicopter battles a forest fire in the Biobio region, where multiple wildfires have prompted emergency evacuations, in Florida, Chile, January 21, 2026. (Reuters)
A helicopter battles a forest fire in the Biobio region, where multiple wildfires have prompted emergency evacuations, in Florida, Chile, January 21, 2026. (Reuters)
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Record Heat and Raging Fires Ring in 2026 Across the Southern Hemisphere 

A helicopter battles a forest fire in the Biobio region, where multiple wildfires have prompted emergency evacuations, in Florida, Chile, January 21, 2026. (Reuters)
A helicopter battles a forest fire in the Biobio region, where multiple wildfires have prompted emergency evacuations, in Florida, Chile, January 21, 2026. (Reuters)

From Argentina to Australia to South Africa, record heat and raging wildfires are rampaging through the Southern Hemisphere at the start of 2026, with scientists predicting that even more extreme temperatures could lie ahead - and possibly another global annual high - after three of the hottest years on record.

In January, a record-setting heat dome enveloped Australia, sending temperatures near 50 degrees C (122 degrees F) while heat and catastrophic wildfires gripped parts of South America, setting remote parts of Argentina's Patagonia ablaze and killing 21 people in coastal towns in Chile. In addition, South Africa has been experiencing its worst wildfires in years.

The extremes are occurring even as the world remains under the cooling influence of a weak La Nina, a climate cycle marked by cooler waters in the central and eastern Pacific that began in December 2024. Despite this moderating factor, temperatures are reaching record highs in various locales.

"This means the effect of human-caused climate change is overwhelming natural variability," said climate scientist Theodore Keeping of Imperial College London and the international research collaboration World Weather Attribution, who specializes in research on wildfires and extreme heat.

"As we transition into a neutral or even El Nino phase, we'll expect the incidence of extreme heat events around the world to be further amplified," Keeping added.

El Nino typically has the opposite effect of La Nina, warming the central and eastern Pacific and boosting global temperatures.

This year is forecast to be about 1.46 degrees C (2.6 degrees F) above pre-industrial levels, which would make it the fourth consecutive year to be higher than 1.4 degrees C (2.5 degrees F) above pre-industrial levels, according to Adam Scaife, head of the long-range prediction at the United Kingdom's national weather ‌and climate service.

The 2015 ‌international climate treaty, known as the Paris Agreement, aimed to keep warming below 1.5 degrees C (2.7 degrees F) above pre-industrial levels.

"If a big ‌El Nino ⁠were to develop ⁠quickly in 2026 then it's still possible 2026 could be a record," Scaife said. The World Meteorological Organization said last month that the past three years were the warmest on record.

FIRE RAGES FROM WOODS TO WATER

While most wildfires are caused by human activity, they are also a natural part of many ecosystems. Persistent heat, drought and extreme temperatures, however, are turning once-manageable fires into increasingly uncontrollable and destructive events.

Many ecosystems are not adapted to such hot, dry conditions, allowing fires to grow larger and more intense, often causing permanent damage, Keeping said.

The fires that burned through Argentina's Los Alerces National Park illustrate the shift, according to meteorologist Carolina Vera of the Center for Ocean and Atmospheric Research at the University of Buenos Aires.

The park, a UNESCO World Heritage site, is home to trees that have lived more than 3,000 years.

Local officials determined that a lightning strike caused the fire. The blaze initially was under control. But Vera said a heat wave and strong winds caused it to spread about 20 km (12 miles) in a single day, making it the worst wildfire there ⁠in two decades.

The region has been drought-stricken since 2008. Temperatures during the first two weeks of January were about 6 degrees C (11 degrees F) above ‌normal.

"These fires used to burn themselves out and form part of the forest's natural dynamics," Vera said.

"This is an example of ‌how climate change can alter a natural fire, because it appeared to be caused by lightning," Vera said.

There are no towns in that remote area.

Fires erupted in the southern part of neighboring Chile later in January and ‌crossed into the greater Concepcion area, the country's third-largest metropolitan region, destroying hundreds of homes and killing 21 people in coastal communities.

Keeping said the blazes mirrored recent disasters in places such as ‌Los Angeles, Athens and the Hawaiian island of Maui.

"Where there's been the greatest loss of life, it almost always comes down to evacuation being difficult or impossible," Keeping said. "That's particularly true in regions affected by strong downslope winds toward the coast."

WHIRLWINDS OF FIRE

About 80% of Punta de Parra, a small coastal town in southern Chile surrounded by hills and forests, was destroyed.

Punta de Parra residents said they had little time to evacuate. Doralisa Silva, 34, said she heard about a fire in a nearby community the night the blaze reached the town.

"Out of nowhere, the forest started burning and all the houses caught fire," Silva said. "The fire was on us in the blink ‌of an eye. There was nothing we could do."

Silva said her family was among the last to try to flee because they had no vehicle. Silva said flames blocked their exit as embers rained down as she and her partner Hermes Barrientos fled with their ⁠2-year-old daughter.

Barrientos said winds of nearly 70 km ⁠per hour (43.5 mph) whipped through the area, creating whirlwinds of fire that spread to the beach and trapped residents. The family and others eventually found refuge in a large dirt field at the center of town, and spent the night watching their community burn.

A FUTURE FILLED WITH FIRES

Record-breaking heat in southeastern Australia has also fueled the country's worst fires since the deadly 2019-2020 season, when 33 people were killed.

In addition, the 2025-2026 fire season has been the most severe in South Africa in a decade, according to officials, killing wildlife and hitting tourist destinations such as Mossel Bay and Franschhoek.

"The hot, dry and windy conditions that drive the most extreme wildfires are becoming more intense and more likely," Keeping said. "And it's happening all around the world."

The Southern Hemisphere has warmed by about 0.15 to 0.17 degrees C (0.27 to 0.30 degrees F) per decade since the 1970s, compared to 0.25 to 0.30 degrees C (0.45 to 0.54 degrees F) in the Northern Hemisphere - largely because its vast oceans absorb heat more slowly and because of Antarctic meltwater.

Still, southern land masses are now warming at similar rates to northern land masses, and contrasts between warming land and cold meltwater can intensify weather patterns, leading to prolonged heat waves, droughts or flooding.

Keeping said adaptation is critical, including authorities managing vegetation near cities and developing effective evacuation plans, and builders using fire-resistant materials. Wildfires are inflicting mounting economic damage. A 2026 report by insurance broker Aon estimated global insured wildfire losses at $42 billion in 2025, up from an average of $4 billion annually between 2000 and 2024. The Los Angeles fires last year were the costliest on record.

Swiss Re, the world's second-largest reinsurer, found that wildfires accounted for about 1% of global insured losses from natural disasters before 2015, but now represent 7%, with economic losses linked to fires rising by about $170 million a year since 1970.

"You actually cannot stop a lot of these really large intense wildfires. They're simply too big," Keeping said.

The most important way forward, Keeping said, is to "have a serious conversation about limiting future climate change to prevent this issue from worsening."

Varieties

Study: Noisy Humans Harm Birds and Affect Breeding Success

FILE - Birdhouses line a path outside a resident's room at the Ida Culver House Ravenna, a senior independent and assisted living home in Seattle, on May 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
FILE - Birdhouses line a path outside a resident's room at the Ida Culver House Ravenna, a senior independent and assisted living home in Seattle, on May 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
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Study: Noisy Humans Harm Birds and Affect Breeding Success

FILE - Birdhouses line a path outside a resident's room at the Ida Culver House Ravenna, a senior independent and assisted living home in Seattle, on May 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
FILE - Birdhouses line a path outside a resident's room at the Ida Culver House Ravenna, a senior independent and assisted living home in Seattle, on May 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)

Noise pollution is affecting bird behavior across the globe, disrupting everything from courtship songs to the ability to find food and avoid predators, a large-scale new analysis showed on Wednesday.

Researchers reviewed nearly four decades of scientific work and found that noises made by humans were interfering with the lives of birds on six continents and having "strong negative effects" on reproduction success.

Previous research on individual species has shown that single sources of anthropogenic noise -- such as planes, traffic and construction -- can affect birds as it does other wildlife.

But for this study, the team performed a wider analysis by pooling data published since 1990 across 160 bird species to see if any broader trends could be established.

The study, published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B, found clear evidence of a "pervasive" impact of noise pollution on birds worldwide.

"We found that noise significantly impacts communication risk behaviors, foraging, aggression and physiology and had a strong effect on habitat use and a negative impact on reproduction," AFP quoted it as saying.

This is because birds rely on acoustic information to survive, making them particularly vulnerable to the modern din produced by cars, machinery and urban life.

"They use song to find mates, calls to warn of predators, and chicks make begging calls to let their parents know they're hungry," Natalie Madden, who led the research while at the University of Michigan, said in a statement.

"So if there's loud noise in the environment, can they still hear signals from their own species?"

In some cases, noise pollution interrupted mating displays, caused males to change their courtship songs, or masked messages between chicks and parents.

The study included many common species such as European robins and starlings, house sparrows, and great tits.

The response varied between species, with birds that nest close to the ground suffering greater reproductive harm, while those using open nests experienced stronger effects on growth.

Birds living in urban areas, meanwhile, tended to have higher levels of stress hormones than those outside of cities.

Some 61 percent of the world's bird species have declining populations, mostly due to habitat loss driven by expanding agriculture and logging, the International Union for Conservation of Nature said in October.

The study authors said that noise pollution was an "underappreciated consequence" of humanity's impact on nature, especially compared to biodiversity loss and climate change.

But some relatively simple fixes could make a big difference for birds, they said.

Madden told AFP that shifting from noisier cars and landscaping tools such as mowers and leaf blowers to electric-powered alternatives was one idea.

Another could be "running machinery outside peak breeding seasons, avoiding activity when birds are migrating through an area, or shifting construction away from habitats that support vulnerable species", she added.

Buildings could also be adapted to muffle sound in the same way they are constructed to improve visibility and minimize bird collisions, said the study's senior author Neil Carter, from the University of Michigan.

"So many of the things we're facing with biodiversity loss just feel inexorable and massive in scale, but we know how to use different materials and how to put things up in different ways to block sound," he said.